Almost a year ago when we analyze the Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 did hoping that the promise of Intel Core M is fulfilled. These processors appeared to raise a revolution that did not occur in subnotebooks, and that team, their strengths, not just leaves us with sensation.
It seems that Lenovo has heard the criticisms made, and those that did Users- because the new Lenovo Yoga 900 corrects almost all the defects of his predecessor and presents a portable 2 in 1 convertible inherits the best range and Yoga is well compete with an increasingly bitter struggle in this segment.
A design that highlights the hinge
Let’s start with the bad news. The Yoga 900 is heavier and thicker than its predecessor. It is, however, for very good reasons. Yoga Pro 3 focused on thinness and weight as fundamental factors, but that has we met a team with a battery below the average power and also with room for improvement.
These two factors have been fixed in the new Yoga 900, but this Lenovo engineers have not hesitated to slightly increase both the weight of the device , which rises to 1.30 kg from 1.19 anterior- and thickness, reduced from 12.8 mm of Yoga Pro 3to about 16 mm of this new model.
That makes the equipment is not exactly a “pen”, but still we found a good bet and a great balance between size, weight, and performance. In fact for many that struggle for thinness is a bit tiresome I’m commented on my other blog – and be grateful that manufacturers take into account that for many users there are other priorities.
900 Yoga design is similar to the previous model, with a magnesium alloy as a protagonist in the upper housing in which, yes, the brand “Yoga” appears more prominent than “Lenovo”. JBL speakers on both sides of the machine, which as we saw offer excellent sound quality even when we put the laptop in tablet mode: a curious detail appears at the bottom.
That is precisely one of the outstanding features of the Yoga range, and these four operating modes (laptop, shop, kiosk and tablet) of those who bragged in previous models are repeated in this case. The hinge with that curious design becomes to be the star of this design, but also to be in a form so is their behavior, since their behavior is exemplary.
The design on the inside does not disappoint, although it is true that frames surrounding the 13.3 – inch screen are perhaps somewhat exaggerated. The backlit keyboard and touchpad (with dimensions of 90 x 60 mm) are surrounded by a plastic material that mimics the leather finish with a really nice result and much warmer than other materials that we tend to “receive” when we started to use the keyboard and touchpad.
The sides are well used for connection ports, including both USB 2.0 ports, which is also highlighted as a port of charger used as USB-C port that allows us to use it to connect your computer, among other things, external monitors. Too bad there are no physical volume controls, something that would be appreciated especially when using the computer in tablet mode.
USB-C port that supplants the use of other traditional ports on these computers designed to connect to external monitors and is one of the bets that will be consolidated throughout the year. The versatility and comfort provided by this type of connector makes is a very interesting option, but yes, it will force us to ask with a suitable adapter to take advantage of the Display Port or HDMI connection of these screens.
Specifications and performance Lenovo Yoga 900
The changes to the exterior are not noticed as much as those seen inside this equipment. Lenovo has decided to dispense with the Core M processors on this computer to bet on more ambitious micros U series Skylake family, which among other things requires using an active ventilation of- the guarantees Yoga Pro 3 included a small fan Core M- despite what we must also add the presence of a significantly higher capacity battery.
| LENOVO YOGA 900 | |
| Screen | IPS 13.3 – inch multitouch 10 points |
| Resolution | 3,200 x 1,800 pixels |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-6500U 2.5GHz |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 520 |
| RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| SSD | 512 GB |
| OS version | Windows 10 |
| Connectivity | Dual Band WiFi 802.11 ac / Bluetooth 4.0 / HDMI / Sound JBL SD / 2 x USB 3.0 / 1 x USB 2.0 (charging) / 1 x USB-C |
| Dimensions | 299.72 x 208.28 x 15.49 mm |
| Weight | 1.3 kg |
| Battery | 66 Wh |
In these specifications are other prominent sections, such as the use of an IPS multitouch screen with 1440p resolution that stands out again for its fantastic quality and definition, something to which we are accustomed Lenovo computers. The outdoor screen that suffers in its brightness and contrast, but it is difficult for a non – matte screen does not.
It is also a very important improvement in battery capacity passing the previous model 44.8 Wh to 66 Wh current. It shows as we said in the thickness of the team, but that little disadvantage is offset by autonomy that finally meets really allows this team and ensure long work sessions without problems.
The use of the new Intel Core i7-6500U processor Skylake represents a quantum leap compared to Intel Core M-5Y70 the previous model, but that is not noticeable overwhelming in some synthetic benchmarks that try to analyze the performance of processing “raw “this model. Where did these differences is especially in graphics performance tests are noted, where the GPU integrated (Intel HD Graphics 520) itself offers a clearly superior performance.
This new processor requires a more powerful cooling solution, of course, and here Lenovo has not wanted to have problems and go two 35mm fans and ventilation outlets are well hidden just below the hinge. This solution ensures that the processor will maintain proper temperatures although it may sometimes much effort we displayed the traditional “short” indicating that these fans are working best, but even then the noise generated is more than acceptable.
The battery does not disappoint
All these specifications may not be noticed much in these synthetic benchmarks, but certainly where itself is noticeable in daily work with a team that is certainly more than enough for most conventional tasks. 900 Yoga is based on Windows 10, and this operating system behaved perfectly especially in exploiting this chameleonic ability to use this equipment in various ways.
The native resolution is too high for virtually any user, which means that in most cases much more advisable to use the scaling of visual elements and fonts on screen. We we place 125% and able to work optimally, but it is clear that this is the end user who decides to feel as comfortable as possible.
As mentioned above, the battery wins many integers thanks to the greater capacity, and standard use of the equipment with the average brightness and a fairly intensive use of the browser, a music player, WiFi enabled and the occasional video playback laptop He exceeded 8 hours of battery life. A figure that cannot be so high with another equipment that 1440p screen -here is a handicap- but I certainly can leave much quieter than previous models.
Keyboard and mouse: Room for improvement
We complained in the analysis of Yoga Pro 3 last decision of Lenovo to remove the top row of function keys year, and here Lenovo seems to have decided to listen to criticism because now we have that row of function keys which also there is accesses shortcuts playback of multimedia content and some other curious. For example, F4 found a blade that allows us to close the active window whether you use the Alt + F4 as if only press that key combination.
In this provision, there is a downside: the presence again of the special column of keys to the right. Where we find such informal access to the Home or End key this provision favors some sections -the cursor keys have the size but adequate- undermines the position of the Delete key, of course, the Enter key.
During the drafting of texts, we had not often to try to delete something and finish by pressing the Home key while instead of the Enter key “C” keys or “End” and “PageUp” interchangeably when dealing the “right” place meets with the position.
Get used to that provision is a matter of time, of course, but first, that placement is not as natural as other keyboards but favors the overall size of some keys. In our sessions, I managed to be around 80 words per minute on this keyboard, while in other keyboards that I’m used to (the Dell XPS 13 or Logitech K800) can reach 95-100 words per minute.
Lenovo Yoga touchpad 900 is suitable in size (90 x 60 mm) but a slightly larger touchpad would have been appreciated. Yet their behavior with Windows 10 was perfect in our tests, with good response times, good scroll in applications such as Microsoft Edge and traditional gesture support.
Convertible notebooks are still trying to impose itself on the market, which now makes more sense than ever because of the convergent proposal Windows 10 that theoretically universal applications will adapt perfectly to each mode of use of their devices.
As in other analyzes of similar products, the fact is that the times when the ability to use Yoga as a tablet 900 are scarce, and on a computer with 13.3 – inch screen take this ability is rather an accessory. It is a curious choice, no doubt, but surely many users appreciate a variant of these teams was a pure laptop with no touch screen, something that Dell does offer its XPS 13 and which among other things cheapens considerably the final cost of the product.
With everything and that, these new Lenovo convertibles are right in practically everything: the screen is fantastic, we have a remarkable performance and design is certainly also remarkable thanks to the hinge so peculiar. To that bind the major improvements in autonomy that certainly manage this team can compete as equals with other proposals.
However, it is also important to mention that the keyboard layout can roll back to users who prefer a more traditional keyboard map and the touchpad, but with good behavior, could have been bigger. Although autonomy significantly improves still not up to the teams with the best performance, but here the screen resolution imposes pay that bill.